Two Marble Sculptures to Return to Sicily

By ELISABETTA POVOLEDO

Published: September 1, 2007

A modest archaeological museum in Aidone, Sicily, is heralding the return of two sixth-century B.C. marble sculptures that have haunting smiles and a somewhat mysterious past. The artifacts are believed to have been looted from Morgantina, an ancient Greek settlement whose ruins lie next to Aidone.

The acroliths -- statues usually made with wooden trunks but stone heads and extremities -- were once owned by the New York businessman Maurice Tempelsman. For the last five years they have been on exhibit at the University of Virginia Art Museum in Charlottesville.

Officials at the university declined to comment on Italian news reports that the acroliths would be returned in 2008.

The university is ''very grateful to the Italian authorities for their support of the University of Virginia's excavations at Morgantina,'' it said in a statement, ''and we strongly endorse the return of any antiquities that have been illegally removed from Morgantina.''

The university recently returned to the Sicilian art authorities a terra cotta antefix, or roof ornament, in the shape of a leopard. The antefix, purchased two years ago at an auction of the antiquarian Leo Mildenberg's collection, is expected to be exhibited eventually at the Aidone museum.

Beatrice Basile, the art superintendent for the province of Enna, which includes Aidone, called the acroliths crucial pieces in understanding the area's history.

Over the next few years the archaeological museum in Aidone will become the home to some remarkable objects that museums in the United States have agreed to return to Italy. In 2010 the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York is to send back 16 pieces of silver dating from the third century B.C. that were illegally excavated from Morgantina. That same year the J. Paul Getty Trust is to return a cult statue of a goddess, usually identified as Aphrodite, as a result of negotiations last month with the Italian authorities. (There is some debate about whether the statue comes from Morgantina, but studies suggest it is Sicilian.)

''It is a great victory in civilization to admit that illicitly gotten goods should return to their place of origin,'' said Nicola Leanza, Sicily's minister of culture. ''Having all these pieces under one roof will be extraordinary.''

Silvio Raffiotta, the Italian prosecutor who for more than a decade investigated the two acroliths, has said they were illegally excavated by tomb robbers in Morgantina in the late 1970s. They are believed to represent the goddesses Demeter and Persephone, whose cult was deeply rooted in Morgantina, which fell to the Romans in 211 B.C.

In all, two heads, three feet and three hands were found; the body, most likely made of wood, might not have survived the centuries underground.

In a 1988 deposition, Giuseppe Mascara, a former tomb robber and antiquities dealer, told Mr. Raffiotta that in the spring of 1979 a young man had offered to sell him the two marble heads, which he said had been excavated in Morgantina.

''They were in the trunk of a car,'' Mr. Mascara said in the deposition, and of ''exceptional make.'' But he did not buy them ''because I didn't know the man offering them to me and because of the asking price, which was enormous.''

Vincenzo Cammarata, another antiquities dealer who has been investigated for handling looted objects, also testified that he had been shown the acroliths, in the summer of 1979.

Mr. Raffiotta's investigations began some years later and tracked the acroliths to the London showroom of the antiquities dealer Robin Symes, who is being investigated in Italy for dealing in looted art. Before arriving in London, the objects moved through Switzerland, a typical route used to disguise provenance.

In 1980 Mr. Symes sold the pair to Mr. Tempelsman, reportedly for $1 million. No evidence suggests that Mr. Tempelsman was aware that the statues might have been illegally excavated.

Mr. Raffiotta first made a claim to the statues in 1988, while they were on exhibit at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles. The museum immediately returned them to their anonymous lender.

In news reports Mr. Tempelsman later emerged as their owner. In 1994, upon the death of his companion, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, schoolchildren in Aidone sent Mr. Tempelsman a condolence note that also asked him to return the acroliths to their hometown.

Italian officials began quietly negotiating with Mr. Tempelsman, and Forbes magazine has reported that a deal was reached in which Mr. Tempelsman would give the acroliths to an institution, which would then return them to Italy after a specific period.

Mario Bondioli Osio, who was involved in those negotiations, said this week that he could not comment on the details until next year. ''But I am convinced they will return home,'' he said.

The Italian Culture Ministry would not discuss the return, and Mr. Tempelsman could not be reached for comment.

Mr. Raffiotta, who no longer investigates looted antiquities, called the return of the acroliths ''a victory for Italy.'' He gave credit to the Italian investigations, which have led to a high-profile trial in Rome. There, Marion True, the former curator of antiquities at the Getty, is being tried on charges of dealing in stolen antiquities. Her co-defendant is Robert Hecht, an American antiquities dealer. An Italian dealer, Giacomo Medici, is appealing a conviction on related charges.

Mr. Raffiotta said prosecutions like these had put pressure on museums and collectors. ''It's made collectors have greater respect for our cultural patrimony,'' he said.